Even in his Philadelphia Flyers heyday, when his English was indecipherable but his goaltending was sublime, Bernie Parent did not cut an imposing figure if you saw him walking down, say, Broad Street. He had salt-and-pepper hair and a thick dark brush of a mustache, and an unimposing 5-foot-10 physique. His mouth typically had a big cigar sticking out of it.

Stick him in front of the 24-square-foot rectangle that is an NHL net, though, and watch the transformation begin, from regular-looking Canadian import into a puck-stopping superman in an orange sweater. Never was the transformation more striking than in the 1973-74 season, when Parent started more games (73) and recorded more victories (47) than any goalie in NHL history at the time, putting up a League-leading 1.89 goals-against average.

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